If they dumped the ads, I would be interested.
I can already do streaming of old shows with Netflix. However, Hulu is more Linux friendly despite all of their nonsense trying to supress Boxee and whatnot.
Nobody is denying that during the 1990s Bill Gates and Microsoft were seen as evil monopolists. The point was this wasn't the case in the early 1980s. Microsoft was a successful company, but not a very large or high profile one -- Gates was just another successful tech guy like Jobs and Wozniak -- probably less famous, actually, as Gates was known as just the guy who wrote BASIC interpreters, rather than the more sexy design of computer systems. Again, read the book -- it gives a good feeling for the time.
That makes no sense because they are pushing HTML5 which allows the same thing
Initially, Apple only wanted web apps for the iPhone. It took nearly a year for the iPhone SDK and App Store to be opened up. Apple cared mainly about opening up the platform to outside developers. A web app running HTML5 and JavaScript could do very little damage to the iPhone OS whereas a native App has the potential to do more damage.
I still don't think their hatred of Flash is about protecting their revenue stream (which shows why they allow NetFlix streaming). They sell songs on iTunes, but Pandora hasn't hurt that, so I don't think they see NetFlix as a threat either. They probably look at the trade off that having NetFlix would sell more iPads to people who might then buy more stuff from iTunes (music, apps, or videos).
I think their hatred of Flash is really a hatred of... Flash. I don't work at Apple, but I can just about guarantee you they've ported some version of Flash player over to an iPhone in-house and it probably sucks. The same probably applies to the Java Virtual Machine as well. When you have such a crappy intermediary on a phone where user experience is king, Apple doesn't want any part of it.
If you look at some of the other intermediaries that are out there, primarily Unity3D, Apple happily lets them in because they don't affect performance. Yes, you can build crappy apps in Xcode and Unity, but it's also just as easy to write good apps. I imagine in Flash and Java, it's probably hard to write apps that do anything useful, but still live up to Apple's expectations for providing a slick user experience.
Adobe is whining about CS5 apps being blocked, but my prediction is that a CS5 app is going to be sluggish, particularly the touch interface, compared to an Xcode or Unity app. We'll just have to see how it all plays out.
Worth pointing out that HTML5 isn't a standard yet. It's still in draft for the next couple years.
Canvas is at last call at the WHATWG. Look at the little tags at the side: "Last call for comments". This means that the WHATWG (a standards organization) believes that part of the spec is stable and is asking for implementations.
Canvas is also a de facto standard. Gecko, WebKit, and Presto have all implemented it more or less interoperably for an awful long time now: Firefox since 2005, for instance.
You are correct to say that HTML5 is not yet a W3C standard, unless you call Working Drafts "standards". But the W3C is not the only standards body out there.
You don't text much, do you? I texted with T9 and it was alright - now that I have an iPhone i can text pretty fast, but it gets tedious if you tried to write something long (such as taking notes in a business or classroom setting). That keyboard, while it's much bigger than the iPhone (obviously) is still not going to be as nice for taking notes as handwriting recognition would be.
With the average h264 video being in the 1.5 GB - 2 GB range, that means that once you install apps, download your email, copy over pictures and music, you might be lucky to get 4 movies on a 16 GB iPad. The whole point of the iPad is that it's easily portable - for situations like traveling. However, if you have to lug a laptop with you in order to sync over new movies, you might as well just watch the movies, use programs, and listen to music on the laptop. It's a great idea, it's just that the iPad is only about 85% done. Like I said, maybe by the second or third generation of the device I'll buy one. I honestly see most sales of this being to the Apple fanboy / "gotta have the new thing" crowd who will quickly go ".....I can do that on my iPhone / iPod Touch" and most either toss it in the closet to collect dust or sell it on ebay.
The Constitution is a list of rules. The test is a list of instructions. There is a difference. Instructions are performed sequentially. Rules apply simultaneously.
The fact is the current Soyuz launch record without fatalities is quite definitely and literally significantly better.
Except the "current streak" metric is close to meaningless. It depends too much on when the sample is taken. Even with two agencies of equal success rates, it is very unlikely for them to have equally long success streaks at an arbitrary point in time. This is the same reason why "current uptime" is not a good metric for system stability. Run the numbers for MTTF, and then we have something to talk about.
First, there is no such thing as "non-copyright" material. Material may be public domain, or have an active copyright. Of course, you may have permission to copy (if you are the author, or use GPL, or are exercising fair use, or have permission to copy).
Second, the law specifically introduces the levy, and also introduces the personal copy provision. The personal copy provision allows you to copy music for your own use. It makes no other distinction. The levy is applied even if the use of the medium is for other than music.
If you download, or copy via P2P, you are (arguably) simply exercising your personal copy provision. You cannot make the material available on a BBS, or other service. But, if you simply download, someone else may have broken that law already. Indeed, simply supplying torrent files shouldn't trigger any violation either (see your lawyer, etc.).
The CRIA (so far) has been smart enough to not test this. I would imagine that there would be a major smackdown if if were tried.
"Protozoa are small, and bacteria are small, but viruses are smaller than the both put together."